Why blockchain is important for software developers, and why software engineering is important for blockchain software (Keynote)

Abstract

In the past few years, cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications has been one of the most rapidly emerging fields of computer science, leading to a strong demand of software applications. Several new projects have been emerging almost daily, with an impetus that was not seen since the days of the dawn of the Internet. However, the need of being timely on the market and the lack of experience in a brand new field led to epic disasters, such as those of DAO in 2016 and of Parity Ethereum wallet in 2017. Also, there have been several hacks successfully performed on cryptocurrency exchanges, the biggest being those of MtGox in 2014 (350 million US$), Bitfinex in 2016 (72 million US$), and Coincheck in 2017 (400 million US$). The application of sound SE practices to Blockchain software development, both for Smart Contract and generic Blockchain software, might be crucial to the success of this new field. Here the issues are the need for specific analysis and design methods, quality control through testing and metrics, security assessment and overall development process. At the same time, Blockchain development offers new opportunities, such as the certification of empirical data used for experiment; the ability to design processes where developers are paid upon completion of their tasks through Blockchain tokens, after acceptance tests performed using Smart Contracts; and more sound techniques enabling pay-per-use software, again using tokens.